Day Trip to Sapporo

Saturday we took the train to Sapporo, where the snow is nearly gone. First, we visited the greenhouse at the Hokkaido University Botanical Gardens. The gardens are closed until the end of April. In the greenhouse we saw some beautiful flowers and were surprised to see many plants we knew in North Carolina.

Our next stop was to be the Ainu Museum http://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/english/eabout07.html , but it is also closed until the end of April. The museum description in the brochure says “A display of valuable artifacts from the indigenous people of Hokkaido.  These were collected from around 1870 to 1930.” We’ll plan to visit on our next trip to Sapporo.

We arrived at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art at lunch time so we ate at the museum restaurant, Beaux-Arts. Everything on the regular lunch menu contained meat, so the chef made a special meal for me with prawns.  We couldn’t resist dessert and coffee afterwards.

The museum currently has Part 1 of “Our Collection 100 Selected Pieces of the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art”, which continues through 13 May. Part 2 runs 19 May – 13 July, so I think we will go back to see it. Photography was not allowed, but we did buy some postcards of some of the pieces in the exhibit.

After the art museum, we walked through Odori Park, where the Snow Festival was held in February.  What a difference!  With most of the snow gone, it looks so different. Everyone was taking advantage of the nice weather by going to the park, including this gathering of cute little dogs in their spring outfits.

 After a nice day in the city, we took the train back home again.